Super Street Fighter IV adds new characters, gameplay tweaks

Street Fighter IV is getting a "sequel," which will add new characters and …

Continuing in its tradition of releasing incremental sequels to Street Fighter games, Capcom has announced Super Street Fighter IV. The new game will feature a number of enhancements over this year's Street Fighter IV, including new characters, moves, and improvements to the online mode and character balancing.

Gamespot has the exclusive first details on the game, which is expected to add around eight new characters to the 25-fighter strong roster of the original. Two have been confirmed: SFII's T. Hawk will make his 3D debut, while Tae Kwon Do expert Juri is a new face. The exact lineup hasn't been finalized, but it's expected to be a mix of returning favorites and brand new characters. Meanwhile, returning characters will get new ultra combos, which should help with switching up the gameplay somewhat.

SSFIV will be released as a stand-alone disc instead of a download, and due to technical limitations, won't be compatible with SFIV. This means that owners of the original game won't be able to take advantage of the character tuning—which includes balancing changes based on fan feedback—or the improved online experience—details of which have yet to be revealed, but may include the addition of a lobby.

Because of these limitations, Capcom says SSFIV won't be a full-priced $60 game, though how inexpensive it will be remains to be seen. Fans who own the original Street Fighter IV will also get an unannounced bonus if they buy the new title.

While it's not surprising that Capcom is releasing a sequel to SFIV so soon—considering they did the exact same thing with both SFII and III—it is disappointing that the game isn't simply a download pack, especially with the incompatibility issues. However, on the plus side, it looks like the developer is putting a lot of weight on feedback from fans, so players should make their voices heard with regard to any changes they want made in the sequel.

Super Street Fighter IV is slated for a spring 2010 release for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

31 Reader Comments

When I see the list of changes I may well dust off the old EX-2 and pick this up if the price is right. Even as someone who bought the original on release day and then became a bit jaded by the fact that half the cast can't compete I'll put some faith in Capcom to balance things somewhat.

We've talked about it in the office, and if Capcom were to just release characters one at a time, we'd likely pay about $5 per character. One even went to $10 if it was one of his favorites from previous SF games.

By that logic, 8 characters would be about $40 worth of DLC.

Hell, I've paid what $50 bucks for Fallout 3 DLC now... so its not entirely insane that overtime someone would pay $40/50 for the changes being done. A re-release of the game does make sense when considering the overall cost.

Oddly enough, I'm less bothered about the new characters as I am about them fixing the old ones so they can be on a *more* level playing field. If they've listened to the fans, and stuff on youtube/gamespot seems to lend itself to that then I'd happily drop £25 or so on it.

I hope they offer some sort of price incentive for me spending $60 on launch day to buy SFIV. I won't buy and expansion for more then $30, and if it's that expensive, it should be extremely impressive. $20 Capcom, $20.

Lemme know when to expect it on PC. I just bought SFIV in the recent Steam sale. I'm curious how they'll work that; I don't want two copies of the game (regular + super) on my hard drive, duh. I also don't want to have to unlock characters again...

Hopefully they take this opportunity to make Seth less of a cheap teleporting prick; I still only beat him on "easiest" difficulty about 30% of the time, assuming I don't sit there and trip-spam him (down+HK; no fun).

A little slack on combo timing would be nice for my mushy XBox 360 controller too; I can only do those about 1/100 of the time in training, let alone combat

I also wish they had more levels and did more with the 3D environments (I mean, even Mortal Kombat 3 had multi-story levels)... but I expected an updated SF2 and I guess they delivered that pretty well.

Originally posted by martynpie:Oddly enough, I'm less bothered about the new characters as I am about them fixing the old ones so they can be on a *more* level playing field. If they've listened to the fans, and stuff on youtube/gamespot seems to lend itself to that then I'd happily drop £25 or so on it.

I'd gladly drop another $60 on Super if all it did was add viewable hitboxes in training mode and even out the characters a little. Heck, I've gotten more out of SF IV than every other game I've played this year combined.

Originally posted by mathrockbrock:Lemme know when to expect it on PC. I just bought SFIV in the recent Steam sale. I'm curious how they'll work that; I don't want two copies of the game (regular + super) on my hard drive, duh. I also don't want to have to unlock characters again...

Hopefully they take this opportunity to make Seth less of a cheap teleporting prick; I still only beat him on "easiest" difficulty about 30% of the time, assuming I don't sit there and trip-spam him (down+HK; no fun).

A little slack on combo timing would be nice for my mushy XBox 360 controller too; I can only do those about 1/100 of the time in training, let alone combat

I also wish they had more levels and did more with the 3D environments (I mean, even Mortal Kombat 3 had multi-story levels)... but I expected an updated SF2 and I guess they delivered that pretty well.

This. You've summed up pretty much all the bad aspects about the game.

Aside from that, I'd also suggest Zangief to be a little weaker than he currently is. Don't get me wrong, I love Zangief. He's probably one of my top 3 characters. It's just that he's really unbalanced. I usually play with a friend who's on the same skill level as I am -- i.e. we never get too long of a winning streak over each other -- but I've managed to beat him over 20 times in a row when I play with Zangief. To name one thing, the Lariat's priority over other moves is simply ludicrous.

And don't even get me started on Seth. He reminded me of Krizalid from KOF '99, whose designer admitted to overdo him 'a little' (per Wikipedia). I only really managed to beat him years later on an emulator with save states.

I remember reading a comment a while ago that said 'Good torrent, bad game'. Piracy issues aside, that comment had a point. SFIV is a game that sounds great, but is quite flawed in some key aspects

Having said that, the game is still loads of fun, specially when playing against a human opponent, so I'm inclined to purchase the expansion when it comes out.

Hope they tone down Sagat a little at least. Would be nice if they added a gaurd meter of sorts so that people can't simply turtle forever and win against some characters *aka any char without a projectile of some kind*.

SF4 is a great standalone game. I'll probably happily buy all the inevitable sequels as long as they maintain the quality. It is a little disappointing to think that the entire SF4 online community will disappear overnight as soon as the new title comes out.

It makes sense that the sequel would be a stand-alone title, rather than a group of DLC packs. It sure would make a mess out of some of the online modes if only some people bought a character and others didn't.

I played SF4 a bit when it came out, but I just don't like it as much as the previous entries. The fighting system feels more like SFII and less like Alpha 3 and 3rd Strike. For example, the characters move slower and start closer together. About the only character I play with in SF4 is Cammy because she doesn't feel nearly as slow as the other characters.

Here's hoping Capcom decides to do a super hi-res 2D game a-la Blaz Blue for SF5.

Damn it! I just ordered SF4 after someone stole my pristine unopened copy that I was waitign to savor once I got a PS3 (which I just did). I don;t know if I should be mad or glad. I'm probably going to get this new one but I'm a bit peeved. What type of technical limitations are they talking about, bad programming? I think its bull they should of thought of expansions when the game was being protoyped. Its not like they didn't know they were going to do it. The game didn't cost 60 when I bought it the first time anything more than 20 is thievery, imo.

And can they please stop dicking around and take out the Alpha series and Darkstalkers series already? In HD if possible (and if they say it isn;t possible "due to the number of frames" there is this game called Blazblue that has no issues whatsoever running at hd resolution in full unabashed 2d) and don't cheap out on the extras.

I'm all in if they improve the latency issues for online play. A lot of times the current net-code is good enough but when it's not the game is so fucking frustrating online. I pretty much quit playing all together for that reason.

It's just too hard to get my real life friends playing on the same competitive level as me.

I'm all for this if they balance out ALL the characters and fix the combo timing. I been a true fan and been playing street fighter since 1987(street fighter 1). Combo timing is difficult for a lot of the characters where some are so easy. Because of this you are force to play top characters like ryu, sagat and etc where you can pull off combos, super and ultra a lot easier.

For example: I'm not just speaking for this one character but more. Fei Long is one of the coolest character in the franchise of SF and I think he deserves more balance since he came out in SF2. You can't combo into his ultra like others. EASILY Sagat, Ryu and for GOD sake even SAKURA you can. It seems like they added some characters to just fill in spots. Capcom needs to add characters for each characters to make a statement and for a reason!

I really saw it rediculous when I went to a sf4 local tournament and all 6 TV had a SAGAT in it. WTF!? After that tournament it realy discouraged me to play SF4 because of top tier characters dominance. Because of unbalance of haven't played sf4 for almost 4 months. Now I am play King of Fighters 12. The graphics isn't close to sf4 but it's more balance and combos are easier to pull off.

The best street fighter series IMO is Capcom vs SNK 2. That is the greatest game made from capcom so far(MvC 2 argueable). It is well balance because of the Groove selections. There are 6 groove so it was like 6 different games in one. And the different grooves REALLY balanced particular characters and brought out their strenghts. Bring back this game. If you are not going to make CvS 3 atleast bring CvS2 to PS3 and 360 with online.

Capcom if you are reading this hit me up if you want .02 cents from a SF veteran and a true fan.

I hope that Capcom doesn't make me buy the alternative costumes that I had in Street Fighter IV again, so if anyone from capcom is reading this, please don't make us buy the alternative costumes that we already bought!

Originally posted by SF fan since 87:I'm all for this if they balance out ALL the characters and fix the combo timing.

Look, I know where you're coming from, but CvS2 (S and P grooves are worthless, a quarter of the characters are non-competitive, virtually everyone plays Sagat and/or Blanka) -- let alone MvC2 -- is nowhere near as balanced as SF IV. KoF12 can't even be treated as a complete game.

SF IV is one of the most balanced games ever created, despite your personal tournament experience. Sure, Sagat is a little more powerful and popular than he ought to be, but if you look at the entrants or top placers of any major tournament, you'll see a fairly broad sampling of characters (e.g., in SBO there was one Sagat in the eight characters used by the top four teams).

Well consider me reaching out, and in hopes that someone important reads this.

To Capcom:

First off I would like to say that I have been a huge fan of street fighter ever since SSFII. I've played/owned a majority of the Street fighter series and when I found out that capcom was gonna release another Street fighter I was very excited. SFIV, in my opinion is one of the best fighting games that I've played in a while, however the one major flaw I find with the game is the lack of multiple specials and ultras. Ryu for example, his special is his super hadoken, and his ultra is...the ultra-Hadoken...so basically the same thing...Now, when you look back at previous games..like SNK vs Capcom 2 for the xbox..(which i loved!!) Ryu had 3 specials: the hadoken, hurricane kick, and the upper-cut, and when you played online against other players you had more options, multiple strategies and variations in your fight.So, basically I think it would be great to add at least another ultra on each character in the next installment. As for one of those new characters...Evil Ryu =)...and lastly...give Akuma the "Hand of Fate" Ultra!! (from SNK vs Capcom 2)